My college and me just started a
blog using www.skolbloggen.se and the
blog-tool word-press. Our first thought was that parents could use it to get
information such as weekly letters, letters from our principal and letters from
the pupils.
Then we came across a competition (I read about
it on twitter) from http://www.webbstjarnan.se.
Webbstjärnan offers school-people to get a .se address for a year and then the
school is going to maintain it due to different criteria. The criteria that are
for everyone is:
- There is a teacher connected to the website
- The main page has webbstjärnas logo on it
- The page has a “about” page that presents the
entries
We
got the address http://spindlarna.se and
told our group of year 1 pupils about it. They got very interested. Our thought
with the old page is the same but for the new page we have a new idea. It is
all about showing what the pupils learn in school. The blog posts are written mostly
by pupils but now and then my college and I write as well.
We
have divided our group in writing-teams of 2 or 3 pupils. We use these teams a
lot in different group activities. Every week one of the teams writes a blog
post about what they have learned during the week. They also chose a picture from
our weekly photo-bank. This way the pupils get to reflect and think back to
what they have learned. They also get a chance to discuss it with their teammate
and argue for their case.
Another
benefit with using a blog is that the pupils can spread the page-address to
their family, relatives and friends. I work in a multi-cultured area and most
of my pupils have relatives and friends that live abroad. They don’t get a
chance to see or speak to each other but thanks to our blog they can still be a
part of the pupils life. They can also leave a comment about our work. Due to the
debate and the problem with Internet bullying we have locked the commentary
field so that a teacher must approve the comment before it gets published.
I
can really recommend you to use a blog. It is fun! It makes the pupils more
involved with their learning. If you think that you aren’t good at using computers
don’t worry. There are instruction videos and information texts available in
each blog-tool. And you can always ask your colleges or your pupils for help.
The explanation of the resource is good and there are examples on websites to visit if you want to start a blog yourself or need help. I hope I can start a blog in my class soon, you make it seem easy to get started and really look forward to get started myself. One thing I wonder is how to manage this when having 25 pupils in class… But I guess they learn from each other and help each other. You have written examples of how you as a teacher can use a blog like to write about happenings and other important information for the parents. And there are examples of how the pupils can use it, like cooperate in small groups and write about what they have done in school and what they have learnt. I think this is an excellent resource to include the parents in what their children are doing in school and for the teacher to get the parents to understand the aims for the teaching. You write about that the pupils get a chance to give relatives and friends who don´t live near an opportunity to be a part of the pupil’s life in school. This way the pupils get receivers of their work and I think it is important. They can publish pictures, their written work or recordings.
ReplyDeleteYou have not written any examples about how to use it in English learning, but I would use it to show what the pupils do in English in school. Like recording words and phrases we work with. You could use it to help parents to show good websites for their children if they are interested in practicing English at home.
An interesting idea to blog about your work in class. Year 4-6 at my school compete in webb-stjärnan too, but when I asked more about it they just said that it was ment for older children than mine... hummmpf... (I teach year 1 ).
ReplyDeleteHowever we´re starting the parents to use "fronter" and it might be too much to ask them to check in on a bloggspot too, something to think about anyhow. Now that my children have started writing more and more I´d love a chance for them to publish their writings so they feel more meaningful. Hav to stop now - have to start a blog... :)